Short Story On Tom Ridge
3 comments on this post
Long time readers of The Chief Source may remember Bob and I taking a trip this past December to New Hampshire to volunteer for Barack Obama. On our last day, we drove up to Nashua to see long shot candidate John McCain at a small pub across from the capital. There were about 40 people there to see the Senator. He shook everyone's hand in the place, stopped for a few pictures, and then gave a short stump speech. After he blew out, Bob and I stuck around to finish our cups of coffee and game of dominoes. As we were leaving, Bob went to use the restroom and I stood in the front by the bar watching the TV hanging from the ceiling.As I looked around the bar at the patrons, I noticed sitting at the bar having a beer was former Homeland Security Advisor Tom Ridge. He had obviously come in with McCain's entourage and decided to stick around. I'm sharing this story because Ridge's name is being bantered around as a possible vice presidential pick for John McCain. Last December, McCain was a long shot to be his party's nominee. It is when times are bad that you learn who your friends really are. I'd think the fact that Ridge sided with McCain when it wasn't the popular thing to do would give him a leg up over some of the other candidates to be the vice presidential pick.
By Kyle - 5/12/2008
3 Comments:
I think this would be a great thing for Democrats. Lets delve into Ridge's tenure at DHS.
I think VP choices are so interesting - deciding whether to get someone to mobilize the base, go for the center, or weigh regional concerns. It would be a fun job to be involved in the search....
I saw Tim Ridge speak at the Building Owners and Management Association convention in Anaheim, California two years ago. His speech was on the importance of the commercial real estate community in relation to commercial building security. He was an extremely engaging speaker. He did a 15 minute Q&A with the crowd afterward and dealt with some very difficult questions on national security. He is like McCain in that he is a straight shooter. He did not mix political hyperbole into his answers.
I don't agree with a lot of the statements that have been made in previous posts regarding VP candidates. Rarely does a VP candidate help you to carry a state or group of people. If recent history is any example then John Edwards did not help Kerry in the South, Lieberman did not help Gore with any group, Bush would have carried Wyoming with or without Cheney, Gore did not help Clinton, Benson did not help Dukakis in Texas, Bush would have won Indiana without Quayle and Reagan would have won Texas or CT without Bush senior. People vote for the president never the VP.
The candidates should choose their VP on 2 criteria.
1. Will they govern in the same way with the same values if I become incapacitated in office.
2. Can they advise me in an area that I am weak. ie economy, energy, defense.
Based on this criteria Ridge fits the first criteria perfectly. He is a strong national defense moderate Republican.
He does not meet the second criteria. He seems to have the same expertise as McCain.
Ozone, good points. I would add that the other thing a vice president can do is raise money from the base. I suspect Lieberman and Cheney were very good at that.
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